The iPod Touch just went on sale, so we made our way down to get one before the Apple Stores even admitted they had them in stock. Hidden away in cabinets behind the register, they were only being sold to those who asked for them by name. We raced home with a 16GB model and took some quality unboxing and iPhone comparison photos.

The Touch comes in a box similar to the iPhone, but only about half as deep. On the cover is Corinne Bailey Rae, a fresh-face artist that might remind you of Norah Jones, Macy Gray, and a bit of Billie Holiday.

Inside the box, the Touch lays in a black tray otherwise identical to the clear version of the iPhone's packaging. Everything else hides within a black envelope and a white package.

The Touch itself is a few*millimeters thinner than the iPhone; 8 mm versus 11.6 mm, but it appears to be about half as thick and feels considerably thinner in the hand.

When flipped over, the Touch exposes that it's not just an iPhone without a cellular antenna; its an iPod. Rather than a buff aluminum finish with a polished Apple logo, the Touch has the iconic polished aluminum back with a textured logo. The top corner features a black plastic window for the WiFi antenna in place of the iPhone's camera, and it has a wake button just like the iPhone, although its on the opposite end of the top edge. Like the Nano, it has a headphone jack at the bottom of the unit next to the Dock connector. There are no speakers like the iPhone.

That means the Touch is destined to end up looking like previous iPods. My 30GB 3G iPod delivered just under twice the*storage in a much larger package with all the fancy screen and touch features. (Don't laugh now Touch, because in two years you'll look just as scoured up.) Fortunately, at least the screen side will still look nice, thanks to the same glass face as the iPhone.**

The Touch is far thinner than the old iPod due to its use of Flash RAM. It's still considerably thinner than the iPhone.*

Inside the black box is a couple Apple stickers, a photo*pamphlet*demonstrating its features, another booklet of legalese, and a screen sized polishing cloth embossed with "iPod."

Rip open the white package and out jumps a USB cable, standard set of iPod headphones, a form fitting Dock adapter, and a mysterious clear bit of plastic.

What's this?

A display stand:

Of course, when placed in the stand vertically, its no good as a music player, because it blocks the headphone port, and the unit has no speakers. I suppose one could use it as a picture frame.

It also works horizontally, making it functional as a Coverflow-oriented jukebox or as a movie player, so you can watch video without holding it.

Mine shipped out of the box with no charge at all, but as soon as I plugged it in, it told me to go to iTunes. I didn't immediately realize that I'd plugged in a FireWire cable. As with all iPods, the Touch needs a USB cable to sync, but will still charge over an old FireWire one. Once plugged in correctly, iTunes asked me to register, but allowed me to skip that step and go to the typical setup page.

While syncing and charging, the Touch displays the same graphics as the iPhone. Its face looks subtly different than the iPhone due to different styling features. Rather than a shiny chrome frame, the Touch features a black anodized metal plate frame surrounding the screen, similar to the modern generation of "all metal" iPods. There's no iPhone-style headset ear speaker, and the home button is slightly smaller. The Touch also does not support the iPhone's 'tap to skip' mic-integrated headphones. They still work for audio output of course, but the Touch lacks a fourth conductor on the headphone jack, so there's no way to use the iPhone's mic, a second strike for the potential of VoIP after its lack of Bluetooth.

The Touch's menus are slightly different different too, with a new mix of applications on the home screen. No Stocks, Maps, Notes, or Weather, but there is a Contacts icon (the iPhone's contacts are hidden away on the Phone page). Safari appears in the home page icons rather than in the dock like the iPhone, and there's no Mail application at all. The Calculator is there unchanged except--oddly enough--for its icon, which is now black with a light grey frame. There's also no Camera (and no camera), or a Photos icon among the home page buttons. Photos are still there, just placed in the dock-like tray at the bottom. The Touch also sports new icons for Music and Videos in the dock instead of hiding both behind "iPod" as the iPhone does. There is also the new WiFi Store icon labeled simply "iTunes."*

The Dock itself is different than the iPhone, too. While the iPhone has four icons sitting in a solid, light-grey band of a dock that fully surrounds the icons, the new Touch has a more subtle,* Leopard-like dock that appears to be a lighly frosted sheet of glass indirectly illuminated and tilted at an angle. The dock icons cast a reflection onto it.

I would expect these are commonly encountered on the web, and if I had only the NYT homepage to look at I would be quite irked. :-P

If it's like the iPhone, then Flash--no (not yet anyway), Java no (probably not ever), but PDF yes, and JavaScript yes. Many Flash sites will work without Flash using alternate content (all should but not all do). Of course Flash games and video would be very welcome!

If it's like the iPhone, then Flash--no (not yet anyway), Java no (probably not ever), but PDF yes, and JavaScript yes. Many Flash sites will work without Flash using alternate content (all should but not all do). Of course Flash games and video would be very welcome!

iPhone can do pdfs? I didn't know that. I really want to be able to browse PDFs while I commute via train. Does the iPhone view pdfs via Safari? Or does it use some other kind of app?

iPhone can do pdfs? I didn't know that. I really want to be able to browse PDFs while I commute via train. Does the iPhone view pdfs via Safari? Or does it use some other kind of app?

(Sorry, no iPhones here in Japan to play with...)

It uses Safari to display the PDFs, and it works quite well.

One thing I love about the wifi connection is that any Podcast on a website (iPhone users can do this over EDGE too) is playable in Safari using the QuickTime imbedded tools. Makes that 8 or 16 GB seem a lot bigger when you don't have to store Podcasts, just the safari bookmarks.

Haven't tried streaming radio . . . I am assuming this works if they use QT Streaming Server?

One thing I love about the wifi connection is that any Podcast on a website (iPhone users can do this over EDGE too) is playable in Safari using the QuickTime imbedded tools. Makes that 8 or 16 GB seem a lot bigger when you don't have to store Podcasts, just the safari bookmarks.

Haven't tried streaming radio . . . I am assuming this works if they use QT Streaming Server?

Thanks for the info. One more follow up.

If I upload a PDF file to the Touch, can it be displayed later? What I hope for is the ability to store some pdf files on the drive so that I can read them at my leisure (instead of only when I just download them in Safari).

If I upload a PDF file to the Touch, can it be displayed later? What I hope for is the ability to store some pdf files on the drive so that I can read them at my leisure (instead of only when I just download them in Safari).

So they are now available in ALL Apple Stores?? I'm live on Long Island in NY so I could either go to a local one or take a day and head to the one in NYC. Just wanna see what my options are. Do they have alot of units?

kaspy, are you saying that all stores have it in stock now and just aren't "open" about it? cause if that's true i'm going to futureshop tommorow D:

edit: excuse the language but what the mother fucking what! Pre-order: Estimated release date: October 12, 2007 at future shop. haha how ghey is that. ordering from apple. either future shop just has retards working for them ( which they do) or it's true D:

Yes, however, the contact picture in your address book is a small photo, so when it's in the iPhone it won't show up full screen like you see in all the pictures unless you set the photo for a contact with the iPhone. Somehow, I suspect this behavior will be changed in Leopoard and Address Book will start storing higher quality photos.

Quote:

Originally Posted by aswitcher

Does Contacts allow yopu to work in landscape mode with a bigger keyboard?

No, only safari does.

Quote:

Originally Posted by aswitcher

Can you rate photos and sync back to a library like iTunes music?

It will sync back to iPhoto or Aperture or whatever just fine, but you can't rate the photos.

WOW NO FLASH? I thought APPLE are for designers. I am not buying this then.. I just saved myself $160 cause looks like I'll get the Apple nano 4GB instead. YEA YEA!!!!!!!

All it would take is for the specific iphone/ipod touch software engineers to develop the browsers so they can handle flash. other than that, wifi on the go is a pretty sweet deal. in terms of the phone even getting a blackberry or treo, you're still not getting full browsers like your computer...

Somehow, I was expecting that the stand be more substantial. I suppose it's fine that way, though I don't know how one would carry it around, unless it's only supposed to be used on the home desk.

It sure looks pretty nifty. If I didn't already have too many iPods, I might consider this or the iPhone.

At first I thought it was a blatant oversight on Apple's part that it couldn't be used in portrait mode due to the headphone jack issue, but using in landscape mode would even be better since you can use coverflow when listening to video. Still, I think some people may have wanted the option.

Quote:

Originally Posted by umijin

iPhone can do pdfs? I didn't know that. I really want to be able to browse PDFs while I commute via train. Does the iPhone view pdfs via Safari? Or does it use some other kind of app?

OS X can view PDFs in many of it's native apps. Including Safari, Preview, and Quicktime including several others native OS X apps. It's a beautiful thing.

Quote:

Originally Posted by thebeat

WOW NO FLASH? I thought APPLE are for designers. I am not buying this then.. I just saved myself $160 cause looks like I'll get the Apple nano 4GB instead. YEA YEA!!!!!!!

And real web designers use Flash. Flash is the whore house of the internet; nothing but eye catching fluff that will give you nothing substantial but try to empty your wallet at the same time.

Quote:

Originally Posted by DeaPeaJay

Only way I know to do that is to email it to yourself.

Or post it on a website, private or otherwise.

Quote:

Originally Posted by daekimal

All it would take is for the specific iphone/ipod touch software engineers to develop the browsers so they can handle flash. other than that, wifi on the go is a pretty sweet deal. in terms of the phone even getting a blackberry or treo, you're still not getting full browsers like your computer.

You are getting a full browser by all 'real' definitions of the word. Windows users don't say theu aren't getting a 'real browser' because they haven't installed QuictkTime.

Last I heard, Flash 7 is pure crap and only runs on the ARM CPU. There is no Flash 9 for the ARM CPU. On top of that, Flash 9 for OS X Tiger is pretty bad all around. Adobe has a lot of work to do to get Flash functional on the Mac much less the iPhone. Furthermore, Flash is software solution. Id est, any Flash site will drain you battery quite rapidly.

Adobe really needs to come up with a Flash chipset updated via firmware if it wants to keep it's Flash monopoly into the next decade. This would render pages faster and use much less power.

Quote:

Originally Posted by parky

Why the hell are these in stores already and all the pre-orders have not shipped yet?
My order is still showing 'shipping 28th Sept', which is 2 weeks away.
What is the point of using Apple's own online store, if they are just going to sell them through the stores 2 weeks earlier?
Ian

I could have walked into an Apple Store to get an iPhone but I decided to order online. I opted for overnight shipping, a waste of time when it's coming from China. It was delivered 2 weeks after ordering just as Apple stated. I think it may have to do with prioritizing supply lines.

You can always cancel your order pre-shipping and walk into a store.

Dick Applebaum on whether the iPad is a personal computer: "BTW, I am posting this from my iPad pc while sitting on the throne... personal enough for you?"

Mine shipped out of the box with no charge at all, but as soon as I plugged it in, it told me to go to iTunes. I didn't immediately realize that I'd plugged in a FireWire cable. As with all iPods, the Touch needs a USB cable to sync, but will still charge over an old FireWire one.

What do you mean you cannot use FireWire with your iPods? I use Firewire for my 4G 20gb iPod that just died on me, and my girlfriends Mini... I personally think Firewire is faster and better than USB. Plus you get higher wattage via Firewire than you would with USB, so charging your iPods/iPhones would be faster.

I researched this last week and found a work around someone was using for the iphone. apparently there is a way to save an entire pdf, unlimited size by manipulating the bookmark feature. The file is actually part of the bookmark text and so you can browse off line.